“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them”. – John F Kennedy

What we have heard over the past week is true – that many people have worked hard to get to where we are now. But there is an important point to add to this – we as part of the Dunalley community must acknowledge the incredible support we have been given from people far and wide who are not necessarily part of our community. These are individuals, groups, businesses and corporations who may or may not have a direct link with us or our catastrophe, but have been touched somehow by the loss of a school. It is to these people we say…

Your thoughtful, practical, supportive and personal contributions have become more and more obvious as we contemplate the gift we have received through our buildings, as we continue to unpack our resources for our temporary school and as we start focusing on what we want to see in our new school. There are hundreds of specific thankyous and acknowledgements to make, but until we have the time to get to those that we can (and in time we will endeavour to do so), we just have to say: you know who you are and so do we; we appreciate what you have done in so many ways more than you can imagine and are utterly touched by every gesture large or small. Your gifts to us will be used specifically to benefit our children now and we will ensure we direct our energies and your donated resources to building the best community education facility possible to support our region into the future.

Thank you – from the children, parents, staff and School Association of Dunalley Primary School.

PRECIOUS BOOKS: Just to start with .. On Saturday and Sunday, a huge team of dedicated book coverers gave up some stunning weekend weather to turn up to the school gym and cover some of the 3,000 books donated by hundreds of wonderful people – we must thank all those who helped, those who organised and especially the Library team and Natasha Webster who has made it her job to see the library re-stocked with sorted, covered and catalogued books.